Symptoms of Shingles, Ulnar Neuropathy & other WebMD discoveries

This past week has been an interesting one for me on the health front. It all started with some numbness and tingling in my left pinkie, progressed to tension headaches and, after some suggestions from friends, ended with me looking up symptoms of shingles on WebMD.

I’m not one to run to the doctor or pop pills, but when I started reading about the symptoms of shingles and realizing its affects can last a month or longer, I felt it was time to seek medical care.

Turns out, it was ulnar neuropathy…essentially a nerve that got ‘out of joint’ that runs from the elbow to the pinkie and the outside of the fourth finger. According to WebMD, ‘ulnar nerve palsy‘ (as they refer to it) happens when “the nerve that passes close to the surface of the skin at the elbow is damaged.”

Solution according to the doctor: stop doing what you’re doing. Translated, don’t lean on things, stay in one spot too long or sleep with your arm bent. (Kind of tough for a blogger who sits in front of the computer for extended periods of time, don’t you think?). I guess the tension headaches are unrelated, but that’s another story…

Anyway, considering the spectrum of what we thought it could have been, I’m thankful. Bottom line, do your research, ask someone who knows and don’t sit in one spot too long.